The following is an article that was saved by my grandfather, Clifford Lounsbery
STRONG, b. 9/12/1872 in Ludlow, KY. (He grew up in Cincinnatti, then moved to New Era, near
Portland, Oregon.)

I don't know exactly how the Captain Strong mentioned in the article was related to my family, or if my grandfather knew the family, or if he saved the article simply because of the name Strong. He saved a lot of articles about Strongs that I don't know,
but this is by far the most interesting incident.

I don't find the Strongs mentioned in this news article listed in "Dwight's History of the Strong Family"

The COMMERCIAL TRIBUNE 1897

STRONG IS SLAIN

The Famous Kentucky Feud Leader Found Dead

PIERCED BY SEVEN BALLS

FRIENDS ARE SEARCHING FOR HIS MURDERERS

HE WAS 72 YEARS OF AGE

Had Shaken Hands With Calahan,
His Enemy in Mountain War
That Cost Fifty Lives.

Special Dispatch to Commercial Tribune

LEXINGTON, Ky., May 9. - Captain
William Strong, the famous leader of the
faction that bore his name in the Strong-
Amos and Strong-Calahan feuds which
have cost more than fifty lives in Breathitt
County, was found on the roadside near
home, ten miles from Jackson, Ky., this
morning, with seven bullet holes in his
body. two weeks ago he met Ed Calahan,
leader of the opposing faction, in Judge
Day's office at Jackson, where they made
peace, shook hands and declared the feud
at an end.

In conversation with your correspondent
a few days ago, Captain Strong said he
was at peace with all the world, and
hoped his declining years would be free
from strife. He was 72 years old, was a
Captain in the Federal army, serving under
General Woolford(sp?), the famous cavalry
leader of Kentucky. Strong's friends are
the most powerful and influential citizens
of Breathitt, and a large number of them
searched this afternoon and tonight for
traces of his murderer.

A Famous Battle

After the war the Amos family and
their friends tried to exterminate Strong
and his friends. They beseiged(sic) Strong in
his house for three days, when Strong's
nephew, at the head of a dozen or more
old soldiers, came to his rescue. A few
nights afterward Strong and his men met
the Amos faction in an open meadow in
the moonlight. A fierce battle ensued,
which resulted in the death of one Amos
and the wounding of several more. Only
one of Strong's men was wounded.

The Last Skirmish

The next day the Captain received word
from the Amos family that they intended
to kill him. He came to Jackson and
advised with the circuit Judge and county
officials as to what he should do. They
told him they were powerless to protect
him and it would be better for him to try
and protect himself.

Accordingly, the Captain secured twelve
or fourteen on whom he could fully rely
and, arming them well, he set out to meet
his enemies. They met one moonshiny
night in October, 1870, in an open meadow
belonging to Rayburn Burton. The Amos
crowd outnumbered the Strongs two to
one, and nearly half his men were old
soldiers. The same could be said of
Strong's men, as nearly all of them had
served under him in the war. They began
firing on each other at a distance of 200
yards. For awhile both parties advanced
until the firing became so heavy that each
side retreated slightly. Then Captain
Strong rushed out in front of his men
and urged them to come on and charge
the Amoses. They quickly responded and
in the charge which followed Al Amos
fell dead, shot through the heart; Robert
Amos fell dangerously wounded in the
leg, which was broken, and William Sandlin
was shot through his hip seriously.
Several others were slightly wounded.

The feud ended by the Amos family
removing to Kansas after several more of
their men bit the dust at the hands of
Strong's supporters.

Captain Strong then bought his old
home place with the proceeds derived
from the sale of cannel coal, and had
lived there ever since. He was never
indicted for any of the killings, as it was
plain to the authorities that he was
fighting to save his life.

The Strong-Calahan Feud

It seems that shortly after the war and
after Captain Strong had gone to work to
pay for his home the kuklux began to
terrorize the community. It was generally
conceded that the clan was composed
chiefly of young men who were not old
enough to enter the army at the breaking
out of hostilities between the States,
but who had grown up with a deepseated
prejudice against the Unionists.
Captain Strong was considered a leader
among the ex-Federal soldiers, and was
a strong Republican. He was outspoken
against the depredations of the kuklux,
and is credited with having organized an
antikuklux party, which did much toward
putting down the clan.

The Captain, when he was told by persons
who pretended to be his friends that
Ed and Sam Calahan were at the head of
these regulators, denounced them. Then
the talebearers went to the Calahans,
who are Democrats, Ed being Chairman
of the County Committee, and told them
what Captain Strong had said about them.

A Crisis Precipitated

This brought on the feud between
Captain Strong and the Calahans, and when
Tom Barnett, who was known to be a
friend of Strong, was found murdered
Strong's friends declared the Calahans
were responsible for Barnett's death, and
not long after that Tom Sizemore, a
friend of the Calahans, was found on the
roadside, dead, with a bullet through his heart.

County Judge Day and several of the
leading lawyers and citizens of Jackson
decided to use their influence toward
bringing about a settlement of the trouble
between Strong and Calahan. Accordingly,
warrants were sworn out by them
against Captain Strong and four or five
of his leading friends to make them keep
the peace, and similar warrants were
sworn out for the Calahans and their
friends.

Both sides were cited to appear here on
the same day, and last week they came
in, each side under heavy guard,
summoned by Sheriff Tom Deaton. The men
met in Judge day's office, and, on
comparing notes, Captain Strong and the two
Calahan brothers found that they had all
been victims of talebearers, and they
shook hands and promised to bury the
hatchet and let bygones be bygones, and
returned to work on their farms and in
their stores.

The Captain; a Sketch.

The Captain was 5 feet 8 inches high,
had cold, blue eyes set wide apart under a
full, strong forehead; had black hair and
full beard sprinkled with gray; had an
erect carriage, and weighed abut(sic) 145
pounds; had remarkably small with hands and
feet, and wore a No. 6 shoe. He was as
active as a man of 35.

He was the son of Colonel Edward
Strong, of Virginia, who emigrated to
Kentucky early in the century and settled
on the farm occupied by Captain
Strong, where he was born in the same
house in which he lived until his death.
Captain Strong's great-grandmother, Susan
Calahan, was one-fourth Cherokee Indian
by blood, and the Indian characteristics
cropped out largely in the Captain. He
had the high cheek bones and a slightly
reddish color of the skin, and the straight
erect form of the Indian. His courage
was phenomenal. He did not know what
fear was.

His War Record.

He enlisted the Federal army at Irvine,
Ky., early in the war, joining Company
D, Sixth Kentucky Cavalry, under
Colonel Munday. He served as Corporal
in that company in the Kentucky, Virginia,
and Tennessee campaigns of General
George Morgan, and was with that
commander when he captured Cumberland
Gap. He was discharged on March
24, 1864, at Camp Nelson, Ky., but he
immediately returned home and recruited,
with others, the Three Forks Battalion of
Kentucky State Troops. He was then
made Captain of Company K, of the
Fourteenth Kentucky Cavalry, Colonel
H. C. Lilly, this being part of the Three
Forks Battalion. He served with distinction
under General Wolford(sp?) and was
mustered out July 17, 1865.

Beginning of the Feud

Returning to his home near Crockettsville,
in Breathitt County, where he had
bought a little farm, he began the mining
of cannel coal, which he shipped by
flatboat down the Kentucky River to
Clay's Ferry and Brooklyn, and he sent
several cargoes to Frankfort. While
engaged in this business, in which he earned
enough money to pay for his farm and
buy adjoining lands, he became involved
in a dispute with a family called Amos,
several members of which had been his
companions in war. Wiley Amos was the
father, and his grown sons, John, Al and
Robert, incurred Strong's displeasure by
stealing, so Strong alleged, several shoats
from the Strong hogpen.